Blogging Break

I am taking a blogging break.  As if this summer hasn't been horrendous enough, Morpheus is not eating and is looking very frail and thin. I bought him a roast chicken today and he ate just a few bites. I have a vet appointment on Friday and I'm hoping it's something that can be solved but I just don't know. Will try to post if anything changes.  I am not handling this well and please understand if I don't respond back to emails and comments in a timely way. 

Hurricane Irene with 100% Chance of Flurry

image of Hurricane Irene from space courtesy of www.nasa.gov

 Hope all East Coast residents (two- and four-legged) stay safe and dry in this monster of a hurricane.  Sounds like extreme rain and flooding is headed your way.

I hope everyone has their disaster preparedness kits ready and stocked up on water, food, manual can-opener, Starbucks Via, pet food, and if you have cats, cat litter. 

 I am sad that Irene bypassed Georgia without sending some rain bands our way.  We really need some rain.  



I am a big weather nerd and have been listening/watching the coverage all day.  (S. is not a weather nerd and has no interest in watching windbreakered reporters standing in wind & rain shouting into the camera for hours on end.)

Since there was no weather event here in the ATL (still hot low to mid-90F and sunny), I worked on the le petite project for this month and finished it up.  The pattern is a Schnibble called Honeycomb by Miss Rosie and the fabric is Flurry by Kate Spain for Moda.

I love working with these cool, icy, wintery fabrics while the A/C is running, running, running. 

This Schnibble was fun to make and the hexagons were easier to make than I thought they would be. 

Stitcheries and Kitties

 I finished my embroidery sampler and learned lots of new stitches courtesy of Bari J at We Love French Knots.  I love this website!!!  And her videos are the best.  I actually learned how to do French knots, chain stitches, and bullion roses (yes, I have amazed myself).  I am a very novice embroideryer stitcheryer needleworker (so novice I don't even know what the latest hip term is...).

Previously, I knew how to do cross-stitching and back stitches and that's about it.

 Back stitches, I can do.  Here's my latest Hocuspocusville block and the fifth one I've finished. 

Random cat photo just for fun.  Stella was on pillow duty again and Gomez was keeping watch for more earthquakes, hurricanes, or who knows what. 


Is it me or has August just been weird???

Weekend Blocks

I worked on lots of blocks this weekend for CW and FWQAL.

 Civil War Block of the Week--Indiana Puzzle

 and Rosebud

 Farmer's Wife Quilt A-Long--Postage Stamp

 Snowball (love this indigo-y purple fabric)

 Spool

 Temperance Tree

and Weathervane


Edited to add:  I found a new-to-me blog by Lori Holt that has great tutorials for some of the FWQAL blocks. Check out the tutorial for Weathervane here and her other tutorials by clicking on the "Tutorial" drawer on her sidebar.   

Pets on Quilts 2011: Time to Vote

Please visit SewCalGal's blog and vote for your favorite Pets on Quilts on this post.  You can win prizes just by voting.  How fun is that? 





Voting takes place today (Saturday) and tomorrow until Sunday midnight PST.

PS:  Morpheus is # 81 and he thanks everyone for all the sweet comments about him.  




 

Pets on Quilts 2011

With four cats, when are pets not on quilts around here lol!  I also have at least 50-11 photos of the cats on various quilts so it's difficult to pick one cat let alone one quilt to highlight.  But choose I did and here is my entry in this year's Pets on Quilts Show hosted by Sew Cal Girl.

Morpheus and summer quilts

 This is Morpheus, my dearest, sweetest, black kitty and shadow.  Morpheus is 17 years young and I found him as a stray all those years ago.  You can read more about Morph's story on one of my early posts here. 

As you can see, Morpheus has a very comfy life.  Here he is on a pile of three summer quilts on the couch. 

I usually have lots of quilts on the couch and chair and switch them out seasonally.   

This quilt is one of the first quilts I made.  I just adore this quilt made from the Gingham Rose line by Moda.  The fabric is so soft and buttery feeling and the colors remind me of strawberries and lemonade and bright green early summer leaves.

The pattern is an early version of Strawberry Pie by my friend Pat Wys of Silver Thimble Quilt Co. 

The corners are rounded to give a soft feel to the edges too.

Click on the Pets on Quilts button on the left sidebar and check out all the entries and vote on your favorites. 

With all the dreary news, pets and quilts are guaranteed to make you smile. 

Miscellaneous for Monday

After a horrible, terrible, no-good week last week (mostly because of work), I was busied myself this weekend being busy.  I ended up finishing things after starting about 20 other things including putting this quilt top together.

The pattern is from Moda Bake Shop (here's the link Christmas Table Topper by Rachel Griffith) and I made mine with two charm packs of the Max and Whiskers line by Moda and changed the sashing to 2-inch finished instead of 3-inch finished.


The blocks are disappearing nine-patch blocks that I made the last time I was in Michigan.  I couldn't find any sashing in my stash that looked OK so ordered a little of the blue print for sashing and binding.












 
I'm thinking that this would be a good quilt for Edgar Poe.  I think the retro colors and playful styling match his personality. What do you think?

I also completed half my Honeycomb Schnibble (is half a schnibble a schnib?) I am diggin' this quilt and hope to get working on the second half this week.

On my way home from work today, I ran some errands. A trip to Target yielded the usual Tahhrrrrr-jay stuff and I couldn't resist some new school supplies pens (love love love shopping for office supplies). And I popped into the nearby bookstore for a copy of the new Quilts and More magazine.  

Quick photo & post

Very quick photo and post of a top I finished up this weekend.  Better photo and details tomorrow.

I Can See Friday from Here

Oh hurry up Friday, I am done with this week and ready for the weekend. Here is the second of my two-part July UFO that I really finished in August.

The pattern is "Civil War Scrappy" from my one of my favorite books Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.

This is my second completely finished quilt from the book.  I have two tops done, one started, and four in project-in-bag status. I really love this book.

Here's a detail.  The fabric is "Heritage Collection for a Cause" by Moda.



Tomorrow is Friday.  Yeah!!!

July UFO Challenge in August

Bet you thought I had forgotten given up fallen behind again on Judy's UFO Challenge.  That's OK, I thought the same myself.  July's challenge was #2 on the UFO list so I did work on bindings (in the middle of the hottest blasted summer ever and then the A/C went out which kind of delayed having quilts anywhere around). Even though it is August, here is one quilt, binding all done, and being held up by Quilt Holder S.

and here is another photo with Stella trying to see what is holding her the quilt up. 




The pattern is called Friendship Crossing by my friend Pat of Silver Thimble Quilt Co.  I think I bought this kit way back in 2004 and finished the top a couple years later and then had it quilted and then it sat and now finally it's finished.  Hooray!  Just like fine wine--it needed some resting time.

The quilt now has a purpose too.  A friend and former Starbucks co-worker of mine is moving to Germany with her husband and young son for 2 years while her husband works on his dissertation.  In honor of her super sweet, wonderful personality and the fun and friendship of working together.  I'm going to give this quilt to her.  The colors remind me of Starbucks too.  The endless green and white cups with red thrown in during Holiday.  Hope they enjoy this quilt and it helps keep them warm in the upcoming winter.

I'll post the 2nd July UFO tomorrow. 

Guess It's Wednesday Night

Well this week is flying by.  I thought I posted since Saturday but I guess not lol!    I did get some sewing done this past weekend as well as going to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2."  Loved the movie and very sad to see the series end.

Here's my Civil War blocks.  Carolina Lily

 and Empty Spools from the week before.

 I started working on Honeycomb (a Schnibbles pattern).  I was really worried about sewing these blocks together into a row because there is a lot of bias edges and potential for wonky blocks is pretty high (like at least an 8 on the wonkiness potential scale).  I think I'll keep my eyes closed and my toes crossed that this little quilt turns out OK.

Under my ironing board.  Stella found a box that was a bit too small for her.  I'm getting a box of stuff together to send to my mom so maybe Stella wants to visit Grandma?   Well I think Grandma will have to come visit Stella because it doesn't look like Stella is going anywhere anytime soon. 

Looks like I'll have to find another box to mail too.

Le Petite Plans for August

Although I still haven't finished Le Petite from June? May? Whatever month Recess was the pattern. I am ready to dig into some Flurry charm packs (anything to speed cooler temps along.)

Simple Times Quilt Along Reveal!

Ta da!  Here is my version of the Simple Times Quilt Along quilt hosted by Carol at Brown Quilts and Kelly at Charming Chatter.  Check out the links to see the parade of quilts.  This was a great quilt along and I love the pattern.  Thank you both so much! 

I used my 1930s stash for this quilt and have fabric pulled to make a scrappy backing.  I had wanted to get it put together, quilted, and bound for today but it's way too hot to be doing all that.

Extreme Heat Project

While I was (melting) at home today waiting for the repair person, I worked on this embroidery sampler from welovefrenchknots.com. I love this new pen called Frixion by Pilot that Melisa at Sweet Home demoed last month. The ink disappears with heat from an iron. Way cool. And it comes in different colors like purple (my favorite). I am using Valdani variegated 3-strand thread in blue-green colors (maybe because I watched Shark Week on Discovery Channel til 3am last night.)

The A/C is on now and we are all starting to revive now. Back to quilting soon.

Morpheus & Stella

Time passes slowly waiting for air conditioning repair...

Just in time for 100F weather

My air conditioning died last night. It is 89F in the house. Repair people came, part is ordered & hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow or next day. At least I have fans and cold drinks and ice. It may actually be too hot to sew.

Morpheus on Monday